After eight days of violent protests demanding a separate Telangana State disrupted life in the region, a worried leadership of the Congress in Andhra Pradesh is looking to the high command for an initiative to resolve the deadlock.
A 48-hour bandh called by the TRS concluded on a violent note on Monday with widespread damage to properties, affecting life across 10 districts in the region. Pitched battles were fought between students and personnel of the Rapid Action Force and the police at the Osmania University after the latter entered the campus to remove leaders of the Joint Action Committee of Telangana students who are on a relay fast.
TRS activists detained several long distance trains, including the Rajdhani and A.P. Expresses for nearly six hours by squatting on the track at the Kamalapur and Hasanparthy stations on the busy North-South grand trunk route.
As the TRS president, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, showed no inclination to end his hunger strike even after Chief Minister K. Rosaiah called on him in the hospital late on Sunday night, APCC president D. Srinivas rushed to New Delhi to call on the Congress leadership. On his part, Mr. Rosaiah held regular consultations with AICC general secretary Veerappa Moily and other functionaries. “We have not received any indication yet,” the Chief Minister said.
Concerned at the continuing violence in the region, Mr. Rosaiah convened an all-party meeting at short notice in an attempt to break the impasse after the Congress Legislature Party adopted a unanimous resolution authorising Congress president Sonia Gandhi to take an appropriate decision. Consensus evaded the all-party meeting as Opposition leaders said the government elicited their views without spelling out its stand.
